1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to the field of lateral flow immunoassays. More particularly, the invention pertains to a lateral flow immunoassay that rapidly detects viral and bacterial infection.
2. Description of Related Art
Fever is a common cause of childhood visits to urgent care centers for both family practice and pediatric offices. Most commonly, this relates to either a respiratory infection or gastroenteritis. The high incidence of fever in children and the precautious administration of unnecessary antibiotics is reason to develop a rapid screening test for the biomarkers that indicate viral and/or bacterial infection.
It is often challenging to differentiate viral from bacterial infections. This is especially true in young children that cannot verbalize their symptoms and in the outpatient setting where access to laboratory diagnostics is expensive, time consuming, and requires several days to produce a result. More recently, many new diagnostic markers have been identified. Several of these markers show great promise to differentiate viral from bacterial infections. Two such proteins include MxA and C-Reactive Protein (CRP). Most respiratory infections are related to pharyngitis of which 40% are caused by viruses and 25-50% by group A beta hemolytic streptococcus. The lesser causes are acute bronchiolitis and pneumonia.
Severe community-acquired pneumonia is caused by bacterial infections in around 60% of cases, requiring admission to an intensive care unit (ICU) for about 10% of patients. The remaining 30% are related to respiratory viruses.
About 80% of all antimicrobials are prescribed in primary care, and up to 80% of these are for respiratory tract indications. Respiratory tract infections are by far the most common cause of cough in primary care. Broad spectrum antibiotics are often prescribed for cough, including acute bronchitis, and many of these prescriptions will benefit patients only marginally if at all, and may cause side effects and promote antibiotic resistance. Factors that urge physicians to give antibiotics include the absence of an adequate diagnostic marker of bacterial infections, the concern about lack of patient follow-up, and the time pressure.
Mx proteins are members of the superfamily of high molecular weight GTPases. Accordingly, these GTPases are upregulated by type I alpha/beta or type II interferons (IFN). The Mx GTPases are expressed exclusively in IFN alpha/beta but not IFN gamma treated cells. Type I interferons play important roles in innate immune responses and have immunomodulatory, antiproliferative, and antiviral functions. Human MxA, a 78 kDa protein, accumulates in the cytoplasm of IFN treated cells and inhibits the replication of a wide range of viruses. MxA protein may offer certain advantages as a marker for viral infection over the other induced proteins such as 2′,5′-oligoadenylate synthetase, because of its lower basal concentration, longer half-life (2.3 days) and fast induction. MxA mRNA is detectable in isolated peripheral blood white blood cells stimulated with IFN within 1 to 2 h of IFN induction, and MxA protein begins to accumulate shortly thereafter.
Studies have shown that MxA protein expression in peripheral blood is a sensitive and specific marker for viral infection. The higher MxA levels in the viral infection group compared with the bacterial infection group can be explained by the fact that the MxA protein is induced exclusively by type I IFN and not by IFN-gamma, IL-1, TNF-alpha, or any of the other cyotokines by bacterial infection. Serum type I IFN levels remain within normal limits, even in patients with severe bacterial infections.
Similarly, most viral infections have been reported to cause little acute phase response, and low C-Reactive Protein (CRP) concentrations have been used to distinguish illnesses of viral origin from those of bacterial etiology. Because the plasma concentration of CRP increases rapidly after stimulation and decreases rapidly with a short half-life, CRP can be a very useful tool in diagnosing and monitoring infections and inflammatory diseases. In Scandinavia, point of care CRP testing is part of the routine evaluation of patients with respiratory infections in general practice, and its use has proved cost-effective. In general practice, CRP is found valuable in the diagnosis of bacterial diseases and in the differentiation between bacterial and viral infections. Often the diagnostic value of CRP is found superior to that of the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and superior or equal to that of the white blood cell count (WBC).
Clinically, it can be challenging to differentiate certain systemic viral and bacterial infections. Bacterial cultures are usually performed in cases of severe infection such as pneumonia, or when the consequence of missing a diagnosis can lead to severe complications, such as with Strep throat. Often times, cultures are difficult to obtain. Unfortunately, viral cultures are not routinely performed due to the significant time delay in receiving results. New viral screening PCR panels are useful but they are expensive and do not provide information at the point of care. Thus, there remains a need for a simple, easy to use diagnostic test that is capable of differentiating viral and bacterial infections.